


Change-Over Cue

by greygerbil



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, implied mila/sara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28571151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: Fighting with Sara on their birthday would be terrible for Michele in most circumstances, but this time, it leads him to spend an evening with his crush.
Relationships: Michele Crispino/Georgi Popovich
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: YOI Rare Pair Week 2021





	Change-Over Cue

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 2 of YoI Rarepair Week 2021. The prompt was: Gifts.

“Thank you! They’re so pretty.”

Michele picked up his pace at the sound of Sara’s voice from the cantina. It was dangerous to leave her alone on their birthday, considering it gave all manner of men an excuse to approach her, but Yakov had kept him on the ice longer to work on his quad Salchow and so she had gone off alone, potentially stumbling into the arms of those SKA St. Petersburg brutes. The thought alone made Michele’s hands curl into fists.

When he rounded the corner, however, there was no mass of hockey players, but just his rink mates Mila and Georgi standing by the vending machines with his sister. He frowned deeply as he saw Georgi just placing a bouquet in his sister’s hands. It was made of wild grass and ivy, with devil lilies and porcelain berries adding splashes of colour and snow-white roses that were still highly suspect in Michele’s eyes despite not being red. A perfect bouquet for an autumn birthday – Georgi had an eye for that sort of thing.

The confusing mix of jealousy over Sara and Georgi both did not stop Michele’s temper for long.

“You!” he shouted at Georgi. “Flowers aren’t an appropriate gift from a single man to a woman.”

Sara glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at him. Georgi, who used to jump when Michele snapped at him in spring, back when Sara and Michele had first come to train here, only looked up now and shrugged. That annoyed Michele even more.

“We can’t give each other chocolate, especially during the season,” Georgi said.

Sara smiled, picking at a stalk of ivy to push it back in its proper place. “Right. That would just be cruel.”

“Still, there are other presents,” Michele groused.

He couldn’t think of anything else as convenient as candies or flowers _right now_ , but there had to be.

“Oh, simmer down,” Mila said, waving her open bottle of water at him.

Georgi turned to the table behind him and picked up a flat package wrapped in artsy brown packing paper with an intricate leaf design.

“I have something for you, too,” he said, holding it to Michele.

Michele stared at his outstretched hand. When was the last time a man who wasn’t a family member or a coach had given him a gift? Except for Emil, who’d kind of made himself his friend over the last two years, he just didn’t hang around with people, especially not men.

However, it made almost more sense that Georgi had a gift for him than for his sister, he realised. At first, Georgi had just tagged along with Mila when she’d showed Sara and Michele the city. Michele had quickly figured out Georgi was there to distract him, which was at least better than him trying to hit on his sister, but the strange thing was that what had to be Mila’s plan had actually worked. They both liked classical ballet and operas, medieval romances, old movies, and watching the lights dance on the Neva at night long after Sara and Mila started complaining about standing around in the cold. After that, it just made sense to talk when they ran into each other at the rink, which was often, since a lot of training happened in teams. They lived in the same direction from the rink, too, and when they were off at the same time, it would have been more troublesome to avoid Georgi than simply walk with him.

One of the advantages of sending every man who came close to Sara running was that Michele had also never really had to deal with men being close to _him_. Had he stuck to that, his stomach probably wouldn’t jump now whenever he saw Georgi smiling at him.

“Mickey?” Sara asked into his thoughts.

“Yes, uh... yes.”

He grabbed the package a little too firmly and pulled it from Georgi’s hand, sliding his thumb under the folded bit of wrapping paper to tear the tape off. The paper unfolded to reveal a plastic DVD case. The cover was in cursive Cyrillic, which still gave him trouble, but there was a picture showing a knight in armour leaning heavily on his sword.

“A DVD? That’s basically an antique,” Mila joked,

“This is way too old and obscure to be streaming anywhere,” Georgi said before turning back to Michele. “It’s the movie told you about, the one I saw at my aunt’s when I was young. The DVD has English subtitles.”

“‘The Errant Servant’,” Michele said immediately.

He remembered the conversation well, both the movie and how Georgi had stopped to look at the snow that night as he spoke, making Michele slow his step, too, to watch snowflakes settle in his Georgi’s hair.

“You said it sounded interesting.”

“It did.”

Michele looked down at the DVD. It was hard to miss that Georgi’s gift to him was way more personal than Sara’s. That didn’t mean anything, though, right? Of course it would be, Georgi talked to him much more often.

“Maybe you could watch it tonight so you don’t have to tag along to the club,” Mila said with a grin.

“Spending your birthday evening alone isn’t fun,” Georgi protested.

“I agree, though Mickey never has fun at the club, either,” Sara said with a sigh. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, you know? We spent the rest of the day together, it’s not like we didn’t see each other.”

Michele frowned. He _would_ actually prefer watching a movie tonight, or any night, to listening to bad music until his ears were ringing and getting pushed around by drunk people while breathing air that smelled of stale cigarette smoke, weed, sweat and alcohol. Yet, Sara would be there.

“I can’t let you go alone!” he said.

Sara narrowed his eyes at him and he knew it had been the wrong answer.

“I’m not alone and I’m not going to a rave. Mila says it’s a bar with a dance floor.” Sara crossed her arms in front of her chest. “If you’re going to be like this, I don’t _want_ you along!”

Michele winced, though the hurt mixed with anger. Was this the day to pick a fight? In his opinion, they had grown far enough apart in the last year.

“Mila can put me in a carry lift. They will be alright,” Georgi said into the uncomfortable silence that followed.

“Right! Hey, Georgi, are you free tonight?” Mila asked, throwing her water bottle into her other hand.

“Yes, why?”

“Why don’t you watch the movie together? Sara and I can go out and Mickey won’t be alone.”

Maybe it was because Sara wasn’t the only twin between them with a proud fire in her chest, or maybe it was because Georgi turned his deep blue eyes on him and sent him a friendly, questioning glance, but Michele nodded his head before he even had a chance to think about it.

“Fine,” he snapped.

-

“I should have gone with Sara. Mila is just going to try to pick up guys for them,” Michele muttered, as Georgi and him made their way through a cool September evening towards Georgi’s place. He’d been brooding in silence so far and Georgi had allowed him to.

“You know, I don’t think she will,” Georgi said.

It sounded a little too knowing for the sort of empty defence you’d put up for a friend. Michele glanced sideways at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. I mean, I don’t know. It’s probably best to ask your sister how the evening went,” Georgi said, turning to watch the traffic for a moment. “Don’t worry about Mila. She’s forward, but she’s a good person.”

“Mila doesn’t like me,” Michele said.

Since she’d fast become Sara’s best friend, that was a problem.

“Mila doesn’t mind you, she just likes to tease people. You don’t know the things I’ve had to hear from her over the years.”

“Are you two... ?” he burst out, not even sure how to finish the sentence.

The way Mila and Georgi got along sometimes made him wonder, though he’d never seen anything concrete to make him suspect they were more than friends. Still, when he looked at them, he sometimes found his stomach twisting, not quite the way it did when Sara talked to a man, but something like it.

Georgi shook his head. “No. When she joined Yakov’s team, she was nine and I was eighteen.”

“I see,” Michele said, breathing out quietly. That really didn’t sound like the start to a romance. He knew he shouldn’t care, but he was relieved, anyway.

“We’re here,” Georgi said.

Michele looked up, recognising the old brown-brick house, the front door grey with exhaust fumes. Georgi’s place was closer to the rink, so he always stopped here when they walked together, but Michele had never followed him upstairs.

On the third floor, Georgi opened the door at the very end of the hallway. It smelled like black tea and old books when they stepped inside. While he took off his shoes and cloak and placed down his gym bag, he found himself looking around curiously. There were old movie posters in frames on the walls. The bookcases were stuffed full in double rows with all sorts of books, some yellow with age and others colourful paperbacks you might find at airports. When Georgi led him into the living room, he saw a terrarium with a red-and-black tortoise, which looked back at him with suspicion.

“I didn’t know you had a pet.”

In truth, he didn’t know very much about Georgi at all. He hadn’t really known how to ask personal questions or whether it was even appropriate to do so. Half a year was actually fast for him to warm to someone enough to even consider spending an evening on their couch.

“That’s Tchaikovsky,” Georgi said over his shoulder as he headed for the kitchen. “I got him when I was seven. I think my parents didn’t realise how old he would get.”

“How long does his species live?” Michele asked, leaning down to look through the glass.

Tchaikovsky stared back at him for a moment before slowly turning his head and stretching his neck to lay into a piece of apple sitting in a small dish.

“Up to fifty years.”

Georgi returned carrying two glasses of water, which he placed on the couch table.

“That’s a commitment.”

“True, but I like having him around. There is something so serene about turtles and tortoises. You cannot feel stressed when you look at them.”

“I think I need one,” Michele muttered as he stepped away from Tchaikovsky to sit on the couch.

Georgi chuckled and Michele felt a little proud.

“Was leaving your home difficult?”

While he spoke, Georgi moved to connect his laptop to his TV screen.

“No, that was alright. We weren’t originally from Naples, either.” He halted, then released his breath. Sara was probably talking to Mila about him, too. Why shouldn’t he get to complain every once in a while? “Things are difficult with my sister right now.”

“I gathered,” Georgi murmured.

Michele made a face. Sara and him had never been subtle people and today had given both Georgi and Mila enough hints. He let his head drop against the back of the sofa.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Michele said.

Not because he didn’t want to talk to Georgi about Sara, though, but because he was in Georgi’s apartment, which wasn’t something he’d ever expected to happen. Maybe he was more nervous than happy about it right now, but either way he didn’t want to spend his time agonising about Sara when he could enjoy the guilty pleasure of being alone with Georgi.

Georgi considered him for a moment.

“Do you want a drink instead?” he asked.

Now Michele had to smile against his will.

“Yes,” he said.

“I will get us something,” Georgi decided. “You can start the DVD if you like.”

When he returned with another set of glasses filled with white wine, Michele had managed to navigate through the Russian menu and found the English subtitles. He took one of the glasses from Georgi, who sat next to him with a stern look on his face.

“To you,” he said.

Michele touched his glass to Georgi’s and wondered if his cheeks were red. The faster he drank, the faster he could blame it on the alcohol.

After he’d sat his glass down, Georgi glanced briefly at his phone. Michele saw that he had a missed call.

“Something important?” he asked.

“I’ll get back to them,” Georgi answered, flipping the cover of his phone case shut.

Michele suddenly felt a little less excited. Thinking back, this whole thing hadn’t really been Georgi’s idea, had it? He might just have felt bad saying he didn’t want to spend Michele’s birthday with him. Perhaps he’d had other plans for tonight?

“Mila roped you into this, didn’t she?” he asked darkly. “Sorry.”

“You mean tonight?” Georgi shook his head. “No, not at all. I wanted to ask you sometimes, anyway – I,” he stopped, started again, “well, it’s going to be fun to watch the movie together.” This came a bit too quickly. “No one else I know likes such things as much as I do.”

Georgi hastily pressed play and grabbed his wine again, taking another sip. Michele felt his pulse go a little faster. Maybe he didn’t have a lot of experience making friends, but was it normal to get so flustered about it? At the rink, Georgi didn’t lack for people to talk to, so he didn’t seem to have problems with it.

The movie started with a wailing, melancholic tune over a castle in disrepair. It looked exactly like his thing, but as the credits passed and the plot got going, Michele found he couldn’t concentrate. The fact that he’d finished his wine in ten minutes probably didn’t help.

Next to him, Georgi looked stiff. One hand was tight around the wine glass, his other arm in a straight line, hand flat against the sofa cushions.

Michele kept glancing sideways at that hand.

Maybe for anyone else, tonight would have been perfectly ordinary, but he’d already done like ten things he usually didn’t do and he was fighting with Sara, so he was in uncharted territory and there wasn’t that much more that could go wrong.

 _I should just try it_ , he thought, staring at the knight on screen driving his horse to the front of a battle line. Bravery was part of chivalry.

He put his hand over Georgi’s.

Georgi kept his hand where it was. After a moment, Michele saw Georgi shifting, turning to him with his whole body. He dared to look over.

The air felt full of static charge, like it did the moment before lightning struck. Georgi was leaning towards him, but Michele realised he was waiting for him to make the next step.

Michele pulled Georgi’s hand up and kissed his knuckles. Georgi blushed, looking pleased. When Michele lowered his hand, he leaned forward, and Michele only had to close the last inch-wide gap, pressing their mouths together. He grabbed Georgi tight at the waist, not quite sure if he was worried that he’d suddenly disappear or pull away, but Georgi put down his glass of wine and only came closer, into Michele’s arms. He felt warm and solid, so much better than his fantasies, and even when he leaned back, Michele didn’t let him go.

“That was my first kiss,” Michele muttered. It was the only thought that wandered across his blissfully blank mind.

“I’m happy you chose me. You’re a good kisser,” Georgi answered.

Michele doubted it, but Georgi sounded absolutely smitten. Michele wanted to kiss him more, but he did wonder if Georgi would want more, then. He had experience, Michele knew that much, and he still sat very close. Would it be expected that they’d go to bed tonight, considering how long they had already known each other?

But Georgi just put his head on Michele’s shoulder.

Michele took Georgi’s hand again. He loved how firmly his fingers curled around Michele’s.

“Should we start the movie over?” Georgi asked.

“Yeah, probably.”

He didn’t think he’d gotten a word up to now.

So they did and Michele managed to catch most of the story of the dishonoured lowborn knight who fought to regain his honour and protect his people, though Georgi’s body folded against his own was still the focus of his attention.

Sometime around the finale, his phone buzzed silently against his thigh. Michele reached into his pocket.

_Is everything alright?_

Michele wasn’t surprised Sara had texted him. She didn’t like it, but she was used to Michele texting her every half hour when she was out like this and he couldn’t be along. Belatedly, Michele felt paranoid that he hadn’t checked in, but it didn’t seem like anything had happened, either.

Maybe Georgi and Mila had been right, after all.

_I’m still at Georgi’s._

After a moment’s hesitation, he added.

_I hope you have a nice evening._

The answer only took a few moments.

_Yeah, we’re having fun. I hope you do, too._

He put the phone down.

“Sara,” he said, when Georgi looked up at him.

“Is everything alright? Between you?”

“Yes,” Michele said slowly. “I think so. For now.” He glanced back at the screen. “I like the movie.”

Georgi nodded his head. “Even though it was not his fault he was framed, he will still fight for his place. It’s admirable.”

“He has tenacity, yes. Loyalty,” Michele said, slowly finding his words again.

Georgi smiled, straightening a little. “I’m glad you like it, but I didn’t mind that you got distracted at first.”

“I’m still distracted,” Michele said. “Maybe we can watch it again...”

It’d be an excuse to come back to Georgi’s apartment.

“Of course. I’d like to see your favourites as well,” Georgi answered. “We could watch something live, too. At the Mariinsky, maybe?”

“Just the two of us? Or with Mila and Sara?” Michele asked because even though he was still holding Georgi’s hand, it seemed surreal.

“Just the two of us,” Georgi echoed.

He kissed Michele again and Michele thought that perhaps he could get used to do things separately from his sister sometimes, after all.


End file.
